Vignette: Sample Size, Pt. 1 of 2

Notes: Okay, before you read through this and want to kill me, note that this is part one of two! There will be more next week, and it will include the sexytimes that I didn't quite get to this time. More Cody and Ten, yay!

Title: Vignette: Sample Size, Part One of Two

 

*** 

 

                If Ten believed in reincarnation, which ze certainly did not but it was a quaint concept that was diverting enough occupation for hir brain for an afternoon or two, then ze might have wanted to be reincarnated as a carnivorous plant. Because honestly, the physics of the things, their anatomy and physiology, the arc of their evolution—it was utterly fascinating.

Ten generally wasn’t much for botany or zoology; what was flesh and blood or its floral equivalents when compared to the endless possibilities that came from chemistry and bioengineering? But these things…they were different. They were special. They were fast, and not just in a reflexive way either.

“Look at it!” Ten exclaimed as the plant closest to the factory that harvested phosphorescence snapped up a beetle. “Look at the speed of its offensive reflex! Has their reactivity been measured? The tensile strength of their cells? The hydraulic pressure inside of them? Because it has to be off the charts by comparison to similar species. You could potentially completely redesign combat power suits off of the information you could get out of one of those.”

“Is there nothing you don’t think you can improve?” Neyarr asked with a smile. He was one of Ferran’s cousins, and one of the few Perels who had traveled across Federation space for the span of a year before coming back to do his duty to his House by marrying. He and his brother Parrell had been offered by their Matriarch as guides and mentors to Ten, Darrel and Cody while they were here. Ten and Darrel had found them very useful for going places that Grennson didn’t have clearance yet, including out a ways into the forest to observe the wildlife.

Ten quashed the little surge of guilt ze felt over having left Cody back in House Grenn’s family compound, again. One day in three wasn’t very much time for him to get out, and even then they had to be careful in case his exposed skin started to abrade. Cody didn’t say a word about it because that was the sort of martyr he could be, but Ten knew it bothered him to be left behind. Or at least it had last week. This morning, he’d been downright cheerful to see them go.

“I’m good here,” he’s insisted over a cup of lhossa tea. “There are plenty of things for me to do.”

“Are you sure? Because I don’t have to go out today,” Ten had offered.

Cody laughed. “Are you kidding me? You would pout all day if you didn’t get to go poke around in the forest, you’ve been looking forward to it for a week. I’m totally fine, go ahead.”

“I wouldn’t pout,” Ten insisted. “When do I ever pout?” Cody had leaned over and kissed hir, which made the cubs that seemed to constantly pop up whenever one of them stopped for a second all grunt and giggle.

“You do sometimes. Go ahead, seriously. It’s fine.”

Ten wasn’t the type to press—well, no, that was a lie, ze was totally and completely the type to press when ze knew ze was right, or someone was trying to hide something or be stupid, which happened so terribly often—so ze’d gone out, and it was just as spectacular as ze’d expected.

“Are there samples in the museum?” Neyarr asked Parrell.

“Probably, but Ten wouldn’t be able to take any of those.”

“No no no, I can’t use old samples,” Ten insisted. “They have to be fresh or I won’t be able to make accurate measurements. Seriously, has no one compiled this data yet? This is one of your most common animal-plant hybrids and you don’t have its basic data available for study?”

Ten knew ze might sound a little…accusative, but the twins just rolled with it. It was one of the things ze liked best about them, their ability to handle any and all questions and moods with equanimity. It made hir feel less self-conscious about giving offense. When ze bothered to consider that at all, of course.

“Oh, some scientists probably do somewhere,” Parrell said breezily. “But how fresh could those samples be? I mean, you should only use the absolute highest quality, don’t you think?”

“I’m not even a scientist and I agree with you,” Neyarr said. “And I just happened to bring a cutter with me…”

“Fancy that, and I’ve got a specimen bottle!”

“It’s like you’re psychic, brother.”

“Or possibly we’re just too used to anticipating the needs of humans at this point.”

“At the very least, we’re good at anticipating the needs of this human.”

Ten looked between both of their smug faces. “Are you calling me predictable?”

They glanced at each other, then back at Ten. “Nine out of the last ten days you’ve gone out, you’ve wanted to carry something back home with you,” Neyarr said.

“And after the third time, when the residue from our little pheangia burned right through your glove, we figured it was best to be prepared.”

“Oh.” Well, that was logical. Ten had already been remonstrating hirself for not grabbing a specimen bottle before heading out this morning, but Cody had distracted hir. “Thank you for thinking of it.”

“You’re welcome!” Parrell said with a grin. “Now, we’ll just climb up there and shave a little slice off of its—”

“No no no!” Ten protested. “I have to do the sample collection myself, how do I know you’re going to get the right pieces?”

Their smiles dropped away. “Apparently you don’t love us after all,” Neyarr mourned. “Because you clearly want us to be murdered by Ferran and Jason once they find out that we let you climb an enormous, slick tree and take samples from the same creature that almost killed Jason not so long ago.”

“A decade is like a second when it comes to remembering that particular incident,” Parrell added with a little shudder. “If we never have to experience something like that again it will be too soon. That’s the human expression, isn’t it?” he asked Ten. “Because I have to say, it’s one I’ve always found a bit odd. The word never completely negates the timing of the event being referenced.”

“It’s meant to be ironic, and I’m not Jason,” Ten insisted. “I can take care of myself.”

“Well, probably so. Nevertheless, it’s us or nothing.”

“So what will it be?”

Ten glared at both of them. “I hate you.”

“You love us,” Parrell said without missing a beat.

“Fine, you go get it. But I need at least a square centimeter’s sample, and try to capture as much of the sap with it as you can, and don’t take from too close to the root because I want cells that are more regenerative and less vital to attachment, their physiology could be completely different…actually…could you take two samples?”

Neyarr’s quills ruffled in the equivalent of a smirk as he handed his brother another sample container. “I believe we can.”

Watching them work, Ten had to admit that they were probably doing a better job than ze would have. They had strong limbs and thick nails that dug into the spongy bark of the tree, and Parrell was up and down in less than five minutes without even bothering the plant. He handed two pristine samples over to Ten with a flourish.

“Thank you,” Ten said. Because ze could be polite, damn it.

They headed back to the House compound after that, and Ten went straight to hir lab to get the samples into more effective storage. It was tempting to start working with them immediately, but…

It was ridiculous, that ze could miss Cody so quickly. It wasn’t like they didn’t eat together in the mornings or sleep together every night, after all. But not even the lure of brand new experiments could distract Ten from the nagging, gnawing sensation of loneliness in the center of hir chest. This had never been a problem before Cody, hadn’t been an issue at all since ze was five. One year’s exposure to Cody had entrapped hir, changed hir DNA like an insidious virus. Ze was still coming to terms with it, obviously, but at least the means of relief were close at hand. Ten left the lab and went looking for Cody.

He wasn’t in their room, or in the hall where they all met for meals. Ten doubted he was with Grennson and Darrel, who were spending the day with Ferran at the Hall of Matriarchs in the center of the Perel capital. Maybe with Jason, then? Except Ten had no idea where that was.

Wait, no, yes ze did. That bouncy-floored room where he worked with the cubs. The last time Ten had peeked in there, Cody had been patiently dealing with over a dozen cubs vying for his attention. Hopefully this time would be different. Not that Ten didn’t think ze wouldn’t win out over a bunch of kids, but ze didn’t want to steal Cody away from something he enjoyed when his time here was already so curtailed.

Ten found the room and peeked inside. There were no cubs, so that was good. On the other hand, Cody wasn’t alone. He was sparring with Jason, and they were going after each other hard. It was actually kind of mesmerizing. Ten was able to push hir instant concerns for Cody’s health aside—no one was more careful than Jason Kim—and just watch them beat on each other.

Jason used his legs more, snapping kicks and low sweeps that Cody evaded or absorbed without taking too much damage. Cody preferred to punch, or reach out to grab and close the distance, but whenever he tried Jason would dance back out of range. It wasn’t the rapid fire attack-defend that Ten was used to seeing in holo films; instead it was a constant battle, sometimes slow, sometimes fast but the pressure never let up. Cody was breathing hard, sweat darkening the thin shirt he wore, and he was obviously exhausted. Jason didn’t look nearly so tired, but then he’d been doing this a lot longer. It was probably inevitable that he would—

Cody got a grip on Jason’s left lapel, and this time instead of turning out of it, Jason stepped in and held on as he swept Cody onto the mat. Cody hit with a resounding thud that made Ten wince, but instead of lying there breathless Cody jammed his foot up into Jason’s stomach, lifted him off the ground, twisted him 90 degrees and then dropped him sideways between Cody’s legs. An instant later he had Jason’s arm clasped tight in his thighs and straightened to the point of hyperextension, and a few seconds after that Jason tapped out.

“Nice,” Jason said, sitting up and shaking his elbow out. Cody didn’t bother to sit up, but he smiled hugely at his opponent. “I don’t do enough ground work; I should have seen that coming.”

“Garrett thought it was important that I learn,” Cody panted.

“Garrett knows what he’s talking about.” Jason glanced over toward the door and Ten didn’t bother pretending ze hadn’t been watching the whole thing. “Jiu jitsu is the physical version of a chess match. We’ll do more of that. In the meantime, I think I could use a break.” He stood up gracefully. “I’ll see you both at dinner,” he said with a little nod to Ten as he left the room.

“Us both…Ten, hi!” Cody called out from the middle of the floor.

“Hi.” Ze walked over to Cody slowly, taking in all his gross sweatiness and crazy hair and clear fatigue. Fuck, he was completely irresistible.

“Did you see that last part? What did you think of the—mmm—”

Ten was all for talking, but there was a time and a place for it, and talking while Ten was coming to grips with hir boyfriend’s ridiculous hotness was not the time or place. Ze leaned in, cupped Cody’s face in hir hands and kissed him hard, opening hir lips and tasting the coppery flavor in his mouth from a hit that had torn the inside of his lip a bit. Ze straddled Cody’s hips and kept him pressed to the ground, stretching out against his body, unable to get close enough. “Stupid…clothes…” Ten muttered as ze ground hir hips impatiently against Cody’s.

“Ten—Ten, wait, not---oh, shit, not here, there could be—people—cubs—”

Turning Cody into a stammering wreck was one of Ten’s favorite things ever, but he had a point. “Then let’s go back to our room and you can have a shower, and I can have you.”

“Yes,” Cody said, and Ten laughed at ze got up and offered him a hand.

“Race you?”

“Screw you, I’m done running,” Cody said, but he still moved gratifying fast down the hall toward their bedroom.

Vignette: Unexpected Circumstances

Notes: So, this didn't turn into the Cody/Ten lovefest that I'd intended. I will give you one of those, though, within the next few weeks, I swear on my beta readers. This one is more Cody, and I hope you find it interesting. Big story news is coming soon, so I've got a lot of work to do! I hope your Monday is way more awesome now.

Title: Vignette: Unexpected Circumstances


***

                Perelan…wasn’t quite what Cody had been expecting. It sounded like a naïve thing to say about an entirely new planet: of course it wasn’t what he’d been expecting, how could it be? Cody hardly knew what to expect, for all that Grennson and Darrell talked about it constantly. He’d been ready for anything, from sights that were awe-inspiring to things that made him bite his tongue, and had gotten, well…an odd mixture of both.

                Awe-inspiring was easier to explain. The organically fluorescing lights that lit the city, the grand buildings and incredible art above the ground and the deep, endless caverns expanding below, filled with curious faces and rough hands eager to pet and tug. Cody and Ten and Darrell weren’t remotely unique anymore, as humans; since Jason Kim’s marriage to Ferran, there had been an exchange program set up with different institutes of learning across the galaxy, taking in Perel students and sending off human ones. They had lived with most of the ruling matriarchal Houses of Perelan, a few insular holdouts notwithstanding, and the Perel were now accustomed to having humans in their midst. They had an entire plan for the best things to do with their visitors, and the House of Grenn was looking forward to having not one, but three new humans to play with and show off and educate.

                Unfortunately it hadn’t quite worked out that way, as Cody reacted badly to the planet’s atmosphere. They’d known it would be problematic going in; Perelan’s atmospheric pH was too acidic for people to bear easily, and they were all wearing contact lenses and had been given booster shots for their Regen. In Cody’s case that meant special skin cream, an injection that was meant to increase saliva production in his mucous membranes, and limits on how much time he could be out and about without using a rebreather.

                The precautions hadn’t been quite enough. One breath in the open air set Cody to coughing, just like Ten and Darrell, but he hadn’t adjusted back to normal. The air, thick and wet like breathing a cloud, seemed to hunker down inside his lungs, impossible to expel enough of it to make a difference. He’d coughed until his lungs bled, and by then Ferran had carried him back inside the ship and turned on the environmental cyclers, turning the air was neutral again. Cody had recovered his breath, but the incident scared everyone.

                The Perel were apologetic, Darrell was sympathetic, Ten was livid that proper tests hadn’t been done to ensure Cody fell within a certain safety zone—“It isn’t as though you don’t have the baseline data, what are you, idiots?”—and Cody was just anxious for things to be blow over. He hated being the cause of problems, and this was a big one. They were supposed to be here for two standard months, but how could he stay like this?

                In the end, it came down to compromise. One day out of three Cody could go out, properly protected from the elements and wearing a rebreather and goggles, for additional safety. It was…well, it was all right. He got to see the enormous trees in the forest that surrounded the capitol city of Berenze, and the innumerable nests of beetles that tended them. He got to explore caverns filled with multicolored crystals longer than his body, and sail across an underground lake that seemed black and glassy on the surface, but turned the most glorious shade of blue wherever the liquid got disturbed. He got to watch Ten take samples of almost everything, and see Grennson preen under the weight of his pride as he took them to his favorite places, and enjoy Darrell finally putting his language skills to good use and surprising the hell out of the locals.

                The two days in between such outings, Cody spent in Matriarch Grenn’s enormous den, where the air was filtered and the food was tested and there was nothing that could hurt him. He refused to let the others stay in because of him, even though occasionally Ten did anyway. “It’s just because I’m feeling horny,” Ten would say loftily as ze pushed Cody toward their shared bedroom. It was that, or ze spent hours in hir lab and almost forget that Cody existed, but both had their upshots. The rest of the time, though, he was alone with the Perel.

                They were almost all as warm as Grennson, and a lot of them knew how to speak the Federation’s common language, with varying degrees of success. They also tried to treat him like some fragile thing, though, which—well, Cody was feeling awkward enough about his inability to handle Perelan like everyone else, so he didn’t let them get away with babying him much. He certainly didn’t tell his dads anything was wrong, although he was sure they knew. Captain Kim was a responsible guardian, after all.

                It was a little strange, how Cody ended up gravitating to Jason. They didn’t have much in common under normal circumstances, although just being humans was a big commonality here on Perelan. But Jason had approached him after the first week of their visit, on a day when Ten and Grennson and Darrell were out with Ferran’s twin brothers, and asked him to come to a hapkido class.

                “I teach the cubs whenever I’m here,” he’d explained as they walked down a long, metallic-purple and red and blue hallway that almost seemed to pulse with light. It felt like walking through a portal to another world, and was one of Ferran’s art pieces. Cody wondered what it had been inspired by. “Not as a fighting style, really. The Perel have their own ways of fighting that are highly effective, but I had to have something to offer on a personal level when I arrived, and this was about the friendliest skill I was capable of at the time.”

                “Grennson said you were in a duel after you got here.” That duel was legendary on Perel, and beyond; a cultural anthropologist from Ceyla University had actually written a book about it, the collision of cultures that had led to Jason Kim having to defend his student and his honor through one-on-one combat with another House’s duelist. He’d won, but almost died for his efforts.

                “I was, but that was less a result of my classes and more about inter-House politics,” Jason said. The room they walked through was tall and well-lit, and the floor was made of a spongy, forgiving material. “I stopped offering the classes to the adults, but the cubs are a different story. It helps them work on their self-discipline, and it lets them get rid of some of their excess energy, too.”

                The first time Cody just watched, as a group of twenty Perel children in a wide range of ages came to the doorway wearing simple black uniforms, bowed, and entered. Jason took them through a warm-up, had them work with each other on some simple wrist locks and throws, and then finished the class by pulling out a reduced-gravity field generator and gently throwing each of his students into it, making them grunt and giggle as they floated across the floor until finally bouncing off the far wall. The class finished with a bow, and then it was a free for all of questions and announcements and curiosity, and Cody was drawn into the maelstrom like a moon toward a planet. Most of their questions were for Jason, but there were a few for him too.

                “Are you hungry? I brought mushrooms!”

                “Will you throw me too?”

                “Are you married?”

                “Why would you think I’m married?” Cody asked the cub, whose brown-tipped quills flared nervously at being responded to.

                “Because…because I saw you sitting with the one with the green hair and it was biting your neck, and I thought that meant you must be married because it wasn’t eating you and because humans are not…don’t practice…” The cub’s little face screwed up in concentration. “Panimalism? Contamatism?”

                “Cannibalism?” Where had he and Ten been making ou—oh. The lab’s windows were transparent, a necessary condition of Ten being allowed a lab at all. It had been a long day and Ten had been sleepy but resistant to the idea of going to bed, and Cody had gone in to persuade hir and…yeah. “Um…no, we’re not married.”

                “But you’re allowed to do that?”

                “Yeah, we are.”

                The cub sighed. “I want to get to bite people too.”

                Jason had thought it was funny, naturally. “You’re something of a unique specimen, being together with Ten here,” he said after one practice, when Ferran was in a meeting with the matriarch and Cody’s quad mates were out exploring. He’d shut the door to the gym, sat down cross-legged on the floor and motioned for Cody to join him. “Ferran and I aren’t as demonstrative as you two outside of our living quarters, and none of the other humans who’ve lived here have brought along or formed new romantic attachments during their stays.”

                “I kind of wish we weren’t.” With a little prodding from Jason, Cody went on. “I’m already the weird, fragile one because I can’t go outside, and the cubs still don’t know how to refer to Ten’s gender, and…I don’t know. I’d rather be unremarkable sometimes, I guess.”

                “I know the feeling,” Jason said. Cody raised his eyebrows skeptically. “Oh, I do. Marrying Ferran and settling on Perelan was never a part of my plan for my life. I lived through enough drama serving in the navy, and I never wanted to go through that again. I retired, took over captaining an easy charter line and spent the rest of my time in my house, pleasantly alone except for a few attempts at finding a partner who shared my sensibilities. I didn’t find one, and that was all right with me.”

                “And then you met Ferran.” Cody had heard this story before, obviously; Grennson had told it to them, but he liked it. It reminded him of his own parents, and it was different to hear about it from Jason.

                “And then I met Ferran,” Jason agreed. “And I fell in love so quickly, it amazed me. I didn’t think it was possible. All I wanted was to be with him, but we both knew it wasn’t meant to be. At the end of the voyage he left, like he had to, and I let him go and retreated to my home and tried to live my life alone again, but…I was never more relieved in my entire life than when I got word that he wanted me back. Enough to defy his matriarch, which was incredible. How could I repay that by refusing to take a stand with him? So we married, and I came here, and then the trouble really started.”

                “The duel.”

                “The duel…and being kidnapped by terrorists and crashing in the forest and being impaled by a carnivorous plant on my way back.”

                Cody was surprised, and a little stunned. “I didn’t hear about all of that.”

                “The Perel don’t publicize their internal disputes the way the Federation does. They’re one planet of people, and it behooves them to be seen as united in the face of scrutiny. Even now, the Council of Matriarchs is very careful about where humans are allowed to go, and what sorts of questions Perel are allowed to answer.” Jason’s eyes went a little remote for a moment, like he was remembering something uncomfortable. “This place may seem beatific, but it’s far from perfect. I’m part of that façade now though, a public face for a very private planet. Ferran and I haven’t had more than a few days to ourselves since we accepted our posts as ambassadors.”

                “That sounds awful.”

                Jason shrugged. “We’re together, so it isn’t that bad. It’s just not something I would ever have chosen by myself, without the weight of all the circumstances surrounding us. That doesn’t mean I can’t find ways to be happy, it just means I have to be careful with the choices I do make. Being unremarkable is something I want, but not as much as I want to be with Ferran.

“I’m telling you this,” he added gently, “not to bore you, but because I think your life might be heading in a similar direction. Not because you’re a natural, but because of other circumstances beyond your control. Thanks to your family and their positions in interstellar politics, people will see you as a pawn. You might want to shrink from the spotlight, but until you either assert yourself or remove yourself from the board entirely, you’ll be considered fair game.

                “Garrett is an expert at this, by the way. He’s asserted himself so much that he can’t be touched by the opposition, not directly. They might try through you, but they won’t go after him. I’m sure he’s doing his best to keep you safe, but the more you think about things, the more you plan, the better off you’ll be.”

                “What do you think about?” Cody asked after a moment, feeling very subdued. “What do you plan for?”

                Jason smiled a bit. “Many things. Another possible kidnapping attempt, attempts on Grennson’s life, or Ferran’s, or the Matriarch’s. I can’t account for everything, but it makes me feel better to try.”

                “Would you help me do that?” Cody asked. “I can’t do it the way Garrett does, I’m not like him. He and his dad are…they’re kind of larger than life, persona-wise. I’m not, and I wouldn’t want to be. But I want to do my best, and I’ve got a lot of time now.”

                “Then,” Jason said, “I’d be honored to help you fill it.”

Vignette: The Academy: Impatience Is A Virtue

Notes: Okay, people, it's the vignette you've all been waiting for. Time for...AWKWARD! VIRGIN! SEX! Except it's not really awkward in the way you expect and it's only semi-virginal, but it's still Ten and Cody gettin' busy. Rating is R, please don't read if you don't care for explicit scenes, and I really, really hope you guys like it. I definitely did.

Title: Vignette: The Academy: Impatience Is A Virtue

***

 

Cody was acutely aware of the passage of time.

Time had been a huge part of his childhood, and not just for normal reasons like waiting for birthdays to come around. His schedule had been rigid, settled, a never-ending train of doctor’s appointments and vaccinations. He’d learned to count before he really knew what the numbers meant, measuring the spaces between visits like the precious things they were. His dad had always done his best to keep Cody healthy, and he knew that had been tough when they were Drifters. Pandora had made things better, and Garrett had thrown a wrench into their carefully-denominated schedule that had meant excitement and fun, but Cody never forgot what the numbers meant, especially for him.

One more year lived was one less year he would live. People on Regen could expect to be healthy and vital for centuries, and even once their original bodies finally refused to respond any longer, they had the option of being transplanted into new growths. It was a controversial practice but plenty of the elite were doing it, unwilling to let go of their long and powerful lives. Functional immortality, which meant there was no impetus to hurry. Why bother? Time was on their side.

Time was never on Cody’s side. He hadn’t noticed it so much as a child, but as he got older he started to see the fear in his dad’s face, a fear that Garrett was very careful never to mirror but that Cody could see all the same. In ten years, he would look as old as his parents. In twenty years he’d have lines around his eyes, in forty years he might be replacing joints. In eighty years he would probably be dead, and his corpse would look ancient in a way that few bodies ever were these days.

He knew this. He’d come to terms with it fairly early, actually. Being in Pandora and getting genetic counseling about his condition helped, and having friends who were in the same boat was definitely useful, but that was part of the reason Cody couldn’t stay on Pandora. Time was heavy there; it weighed you down with its overbearing presence. He wanted a life where people were light and happy and hopeful and careless about time, so that he could try and forget it too. He’d gotten to the Academy, and he could honestly say that he’d never been happier.

Still, Cody thought about time. He thought about how it affected him and the people around him, and the night before they finally landed on Perelan, he knew his time with Ten had almost run out.

Not because they were going to be apart, exactly. Definitely not because he was dying or anything. No, Cody was about to lose the battle for Ten’s attention to science, because once they got down to Perelan there would be no stopping Ten’s curiosity, and Cody knew he would be lucky to distract hir long enough to eat, much less have sex. And fuck it, but they hadn’t actually quite had sex yet.

There had been orgasms, and those were great. It was different with Ten than it had been with Lacey, not just because the parts were different but because Ten was nowhere close to timid. Ten was actually surprisingly patient, and there had been hands and mouths and toys—holy shit, the toys were crazy, weird rotating-grasping-pulling toys that left you feeling like you’d been turned inside out in a really, really good way—and all of that was great. But there were a few things that hadn’t happened yet, and Cody was kind of really ready for one of them to.

One of those things was penetrating Ten. Ze’d brushed it off, saying ze’d done it and didn’t care for it but Cody could if he really wanted to. Which, no. Knowing Ten that meant ze’d let someone fuck hir and had hated it, or gone into it clinically and taken notes the whole time, or forced hirself to for some other reason and if it wasn’t something ze wanted, really wanted, then Cody wasn’t going to go there. Maybe someday Ten would feel differently, but honestly Cody didn’t really care if they ever did that.

What he wanted, and what Ten hadn’t done yet, was fuck him. Maybe the delay stemmed from strange sense of reciprocity, although that wasn’t really the way Ten thought about things. Maybe—probably—it was because Cody hadn’t asked yet, although if Ten could infer anything about the way Cody writhed on that vibrating tentacle thing, it was that he really didn’t mind having something inside of him. Really. Like, holy fuck, really. He’d just like it to be Ten.

So tonight Cody was going to ask. He was ready for it, he wanted it, he kind of felt like he needed it. He’d take anything, he’d take everything. He was stupid in love with Ten, but he was never quite able to turn off that ticking in the back of his mind, that ever-present timer that was counting down his life. They were about to land on an alien planet. They’d had inoculations, they were prepared for the climate issues, but who knew what could happen? Maybe he’d have an allergic reaction to something, maybe there’d be an accident, maybe something else would go wrong. And Cody was not going to die a sort-of virgin.

“Morbid,” he muttered to himself as he twisted under the blanket so that he could see the door. Because naturally Ten wasn’t here, ze was overseeing the packaging and transport prep for hir equipment. They were only going to be on the planet for a month, and ze’d still brought a full lab along, just in case ze wanted to...fuck if Cody knew, but if it could be done Ten had the gear to do it. It was all coming with them too, and Ten had been unpacking and repacking it for the past two hours. Cody sighed and kicked off the blanket. He was tired of waiting.

The door opened silently for him, and he stepped out into the hallway and headed for the cargo bay, wincing slightly at the chill of the metal beneath his bare feet. It warmed automatically before he could take another step, though. Meta-materials with smart sensor systems—Jason had spared no expense for his personal ship. Of course, he was an ambassador, a certain level of elegance was expected, but this was just lovely. Cody could remember being a young child, running along the tight corridors of the Drifter’s enormous homeship, the only kid required to wear shoes. He’d still managed to cut his ankle on a sharp wire that had jutted out from one of the walls, and he’d bled and bled and bled. His dad had been frantic. It was shortly after that that they’d signed on to the Pandora mission.

This ship was fancy but it wasn’t that big, and Cody found Ten alone in the cargo bay, staring critically at hir grav-sheet wrapped pile of stuff. Grav-sheets were the most expensive packaging money could buy, something that would literally slow the descent of a falling object into a soft landing before it could hit the ground, but Ten still looked critical.

“I think I need to change their configuration,” ze said, still staring at the boxes with hir hands on hir hips. Ze’d gone ice blue with hir hair, with lavender tips. Hir head looked like a beautiful, scowling, exotic flower.

“You need to come to bed.”

“No, I need to ensure that thousands of credits worth of precious scientific equipment isn’t destroyed due to my, or other peoples, negligence tomorrow. Admittedly if there’s any negligence involved it’s almost certain to be other peoples, but you can’t guard completely against stupidity which is why I really think I need a few more grav sheets.”

“You’ve already used all of the ones Jason and Ferran keep on board.”

“They really ought to keep more,” Ten grumbled. “How do they keep anything safe otherwise?”

Cody moved in behind Ten and wrapped his arms around hir waist. Ten sighed but didn’t push him away; if anything ze leaned back into the embrace. “I don’t think they need to worry about transporting entire scientific labs very often.”

“A terrible oversight.”

“Mmhmm.” Cody kissed the back of Ten’s head. “Come to bed.”

“I won’t fall asleep.”

“I don’t want you to fall asleep.”

“You…wait, what?”

“I don’t want you to all asleep,” Cody repeated. “I want you to come to bed, with me, so you can fuck me before we land on Perelan tomorrow.” There. Honesty.

“Um.” Ten craned hir head back to look at Cody. “Uh, no, that’s okay.”

“What?” That was not the response Cody had been expecting.

“I think we shouldn’t, not tonight, you can use the Morpher instead, I programmed it to do all the things you like, or, or I could use it on you,” Ten babbled, “that would be good, wouldn’t it? I think that would be good.”

“Ten.” Cody tried to marshall his thoughts. “Are you saying you don’t want to fuck me? Because you wanted to four days ago.” The only reason they hadn’t was because Cody had been sore from his first time with Ten’s bigger shape-changing toy.

“I’m saying you’ll like it better if I don’t.”

“Why the hell would I like it better if you didn’t fuck me?” Cody demanded. “If you don’t want to that’s one thing, but…” He glanced over Ten’s shoulder. “It looks like you want to from here.”

“Stupid spontaneous erections, you just don’t have these problems with vaginas,” Ten said disconsolately. “Look, I want to, but I’m not going to be able to give you what you like.”

Cody still wasn’t following. “I like you.”

“No, no, you like being stretched. I’ve been cataloguing your physiological responses to stimuli and you definitely like being stretched the best, it makes you come harder and longer, especially when I’m using my mouth on you at the same time. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but when it comes to circumference I’m not exactly able to achieve the widths you seem to prefer, and so I won’t be able to do it the way you like it and so I don’t think we should try.”

Cody was dumbfounded. “Are you kidding me? We haven’t done it enough for you to make that kind of call!”

“Seventeen orgasms is a decent sample size,” Ten argued.

“Yeah, but like…eight of those were from hand jobs, right? Your hands on me, nothing else. And then there were blowjobs, and then finally there were the ones where we put something inside of me, and honestly, the only thing I really wanted out of any of them was you.”

“Bullshit,” Ten said, but hir voice was softer, less confident. “You like…”

“You. First and foremost. I don’t care if we never use any of your toys again,” although he would miss the one that vibrated in time with his heartbeat, that was pretty cool. “I’d rather just have you. I can’t believe I have to explain this to you,” Cody added incredulously. “I’m the inexperienced one here, right?” Except he was starting to get a sense of Ten’s ‘experience,’ and it didn’t stand up very positively to scrutiny.

“I would really, really like you to come to bed and fuck me,” Cody said finally. “It’s all I could think about all day. I haven’t touched myself, I’ve been waiting for you to do it and I feel like I’m about to explode, so please don’t make me beg. Unless you really want me to, because I probably will right now.”

Ten turned around in Cody’s arms and stared at him. Whatever ze saw in his face must have been convincing, because suddenly ze smirked and leaned in to kiss him. They rubbed against each other, ramping up the tension, and finally it was Cody who pulled back and snapped, “We aren’t doing this here, come on.”

“We were just kissing!” Ten said faux-innocently, hitching hir groin against his again and making Cody groan.

“I am not coming in my pants somewhere with surveillance. Bed. Now.” He took Ten’s hand and towed hir along down the corridor, away from hir precious cargo, and was gratified to see that Ten didn’t look back once. They got into their room and onto the bed in record time, and then they were kicking off clothes and shifting around until Ten was perched naked on top of Cody, staring down at him like ze wanted to eat him alive. Which, at this point, would be a relief. Ze stroked Cody’s cock and he almost bit through his lip.

“No,” he gritted, “not like that. Inside me.”

“You really do like it when I touch you, don’t you?” Ten marveled, not letting go but keeping hir touch light. “You respond much more strongly when it’s me than when it’s a toy, and even when we bring them into sex it’s usually after a decent period of stimulation with me.”

“Yes, fascinating, now how about you stop that before I come all over you?”

“You’re eighteen, you can get it up again fast.” But Ten did let go, leaned down and framed Cody’s face with hir hands and kissed him, hard. Ze hovered hir body over his own, not quite making contact, but Cody still felt the sticky drip of precome on his stomach, and he knew it wasn’t his. “You’re amazing,” Ten whispered. “I don’t understand you completely yet, but I’m going to. I’m going to figure out everything about you, right down to the proteins that make up your DNA, and I’m going to memorize every one of them.”

“Do that tomorrow,” Cody gasped, feeling lightheaded. “Do me right now.”

“Right. Yes.” Ten let go of him and sat back. “Roll over.”

“Ten…”

“It’ll be better this way! We can do it the other way later, there are a million ways to do this and we can do them all, just roll over already!”

Well, that was encouraging. Cody rolled onto his stomach, shifting onto his knees so that his cock didn’t touch the bed. He was so hard, and Ten wasn’t even touching him yet. How the fuck was he going to do this?

“You’ll be fine,” Ten said, and Cody figured he’d accidentally said the last part out loud. “You’ll like it.”

“I already do,” Cody managed as Ten began to rub slick fingers over his hole. “Oh, fuck, you really don’t need to take your time. Seriously.” One slipped inside of him, and he groaned. “Seriously, I’m not going to last, I’m fine, just…Ten, c’mon.”

“We need a blocker,” Ten said meditatively as ze switched to two fingers. Cody opened easily—he did really like the Morpher, they’d used it last night and yeah, he liked being stretched, but this was better. This was Ten. “Some people use injections, but there are external devices we could put on you to keep you from coming. Rings used to be really popular, I could make on that has a warming element, I could put it on a timer…that would actually be really fun, I’m going to do that.”

“Ten…” Cody was aware of just how ragged he sounded, and finally Ten had mercy on him. Ze slipped hir fingers out, pressed hir body close to his and then slowly, so slowly, pushed inside of him. Hir cock was smaller than Cody’s, definitely smaller than the Morpher, but it was bigger than hir fingers and right now it felt like all Cody could handle, almost more than he could handle. He exhaled heavily and tried to remember to breathe but oh god, it felt so good, his whole body seemed to throb in time with Ten’s slow thrust and he couldn’t even think about touching his cock, he couldn’t, because he was going to go off like a fucking bomb…and then Ten was all the way in, leaning over him and moaning softly, a sweet, low sound that Cody had never heard hir make before.

“Fuck,” Ten said, and Cody laughed, then groaned at the way it made him tighten. “Fucking…don’t do that, you’re going to make me come and I just got in here, just don’t do anything for a minute.”

“Maybe you need a ring too,” Cody suggested. Ten punished him by pulling back and then pressing in again, and Cody whined.

“Maybe you need to be quiet and let me have you.”

“Mmm…just…move.” The ache was gone, there was nothing but fullness and a sense of incredulous pleasure. Ten was inside of him, and it was brilliant. “Move.”

“You’ll come in fewer than ten strokes if I do, and I won’t even have to touch you,” Ten said, but Cody didn’t care.

“Just do it.” Ze pulled back and thrust in, smooth, small movements of hir hips that left hir chest pressed to his back, over and over and oh shit, ze was right, Cody was going to come, he couldn’t help it, it felt so fucking good, oh god, god, right there—

He was gone, clenching and crying out as he shot all over the bed, his body rocked by the strength of his orgasm. He was loud, too, loud and inarticulate, and fuck, Ten was probably recording the decibel level and Cody didn’t even care, it was so good it was almost too much, every muscle trembled and ached with pleasure and he was going to collapse onto the bed but he wanted Ten to stay in him, and so he reached back and gripped Ten’s hip as he slowly went supine, holding hir close.

Ten was shaking too, but probably for a different reason. “I knew it,” ze said breathlessly. “Seven, I knew it, you made it to seven, oh fuck, but I’m not ready to…I can’t…”

“Just wait,” Cody said, still holding Ten close. “Just wait, I’m eighteen, remember? I can go again, I can go right now, just don’t leave.”

“Pulling out is not part of the plan,” Ten snapped, sounding much more like hirself as they both relaxed a little. “I just don’t want to hurt you.”

Cody laughed. “How would you possibly hurt me?”

“It can hurt, sometimes. You might be too sensitive, you might be sore, your skin might be abraded—”

“Not with the amount of lubricant you used.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Ten repeated, and Cody finally got what ze needed.

“I’ll tell you if it bothers me, I promise,” he said. “But it doesn’t hurt right now, it feels amazing. You’re fucking perfect, and I’m ready, I am, please.” Keep going, he wanted to say, but he could wait for Ten to feel comfortable.

Fortunately Ten took him at his work. Ze braced hir knees outside of Cody’s and thrust in again, and yeah, oh fuck, he was sensitive, expecially when the head of hir cock passed right over his prostate, but it felt so good too, it was the sort of pain he could bear and he was already getting hard from it. “More,” he begged, finally begged and Ten gave him more, fucked him slowly but hard and deep. Hir weight was a welcome burden and hir heat set him on fire, and by the time Ten finally came inside of him Cody was coming too, lasting long enough to touch himself this time, just a few quick strokes of his cock and then bam, gone.

There was just enough room on the bed that when Ten rolled them to the side, they avoided most of the mess. Not that Cody wasn’t going to need a shower anyway, but it was still thoughtful. Ten got hir arms in a vice grip around Cody’s waist and buried hir face against his neck.

“Sometimes I just want to bury myself in you and never leave,” ze confessed.

“Feel free to do it as often as you want,” Cody offered languidly. He felt exhausted and exhilarated all at once. “That was awesome.”

“It really was.”

“You still sound surprised.”

“I told you, you still surprise me.” Ten kissed his shoulder, used hir tongue to taste his skin. “I think you’ll surprise me forever.”

Cody wanted to agree but even now he could still feel it, the invisible force that ruled his life and measured out his moments. They didn’t have forever, but at least they had right now.

That was good enough.

Vignette: The Academy: Artificial Space

Notes: The promised vignette, and oh my god, these boys are so slow...and so dangerous, Ten, seriously! I thought this up and then I couldn't not do it, but very soon--very, very soon, probably the next vignette--we'll have a real physical and emotional breakthrough. Until then it's one step forward, then two steps sideways, spin around three times and try to catch your balance.

Title: Vignette: The Academy: Artificial Space


***

Some experiments could only be done in zero gravity.

Most of the documented effects of zero-g on biological experiments were child’s play at this point, long ago sourced and verified back when humanity had only been able to send tiny little shuttles into orbit around Old Earth. The basics, like extreme virulence in bacteria and larger, stronger protein growths in bioreactors were so well known as to be ignored for their baseness. Science had incorporated the techniques into canon, and then with the advent of artificial gravity had no need to look for ways around those effects because it just wasn’t an issue any longer.

But Ten wanted to experiment with a new type of biological thin film that might be useful as an implant for a natural, a kind of second skin that would carry a different strain of Regen—ze eyed the container from Admiral Liang yearningly, but decided not to open it yet, not before the delivery mechanism could be proven—and deliver it on a regulated basis. Of course this sort of thing had been done before, of course it had, Ten wasn’t going to reinvent the damn wheel if ze didn’t have to, but there were no stores of thin films on board the ship and it wasn’t all that difficult to grow a protein matrix, especially in zero-g, and it wasn’t like ze had much to do anyway because Grennson’s dads had invited all of them to learn some weirdo martial art and naturally, naturally everyone had jumped on that chance except for Ten, who didn’t need to occupy hir body in order to be happy in hir surroundings. All ze needed was hir lab equipment and a proper hypothesis to test out, and if Cody wanted to spent his mornings kiyaa-ing and hitting people, well, Ten would get some work done.

Ze had to do it in starts, because it wasn’t advisable to keep the gravity off in this small section of the ship all the time, especially when other people were around. Ten had broken into the guts of the room’s control panel and deactivated the alarm, then done a little tinkering and—voila! Perfect and highly specific zero-g circumstances, and no one had figured it out the past two days and there was no discernible change in the power draw, so overall ze was pretty pleased with hirself.

At least, Ten was pleased with hirself until the system ze was using to transfer the mild acid that was thinning the biofilms in their gently-spinning centrifuge suddenly failed. It was ludicrous, nothing ze could have foreseen, that the joint would come apart like that especially after ze’d used the molecular zipper to—

Oh right, Ten thought to hirself as ze watched little globs of acid spill out the joint between the pump and centrifuge. I forgot the molecular zipper. Which was a ridiculous oversight, not the sort of thing ze would generally forget but ze hadn’t had time to write down hir steps for this particular phase of the experiment and ze hadn’t been sleeping very well either, not with Cody being housed in another room for the first time in an entire year, which apparently was bothering hir more than it was him, if his excitement about going and playing with joint locks this morning was any indication.

Ten frowned and shut off the pump, and the flow of acid slowed. Fine. It was a bit of a mess but nothing ze couldn’t handle, ze just had to reattach the tube and—

A floating bubble of acid burst across the back of Ten’s hand, and the sudden pain halted hir in hir tracks, an unconscious rictus of fear twisting hir mouth. Ze stared at hir hand, and it wasn’t a splash of red that ze saw, it was bone and tendon, and hir fingers curling in on themselves, and ze heard someone screaming and another person yelling, and it was all pain pain painpainpain…

“Ten?”

Coming out of the fog of…memory? A nightmare? Whatever it was, it was hard, but Ten managed it for Cody’s sake. “Mmm?” ze hummed, the only sound hir vocal cords would make at first. “Mm…wai…don’t, hang on, don’t come in here!” Vision filtered back in, and now hir hand was purple, and the air was filled with tiny globs of yellowish acid. The door to the hall was open, and there was Cody in an old dobak he’d borrowed from Jason, the plain black fabric so worn it was grey now. There was gravity in the hall, but none in the bedroom, and glistening dots of acid splashed to the ground as they reached the barrier. “Don’t come in here,” Ten reiterated. “If this stuff gets in your eyes it could blind you.”

“Couldn’t it blind you?” Cody demanded, his voice somewhere between angry and aghast.

Ten rolled hir eyes. “Which one of us can use Regen, again? Oh that’s right, me, I can use it, so—” Another lobe of acid hit hir exposed neck, and ze winced. “Just…just leave, I can handle this, I just have to get to the control panel.” Which was…on the other side of the room. Brilliant.

Cody grimaced, then abruptly shut the door. Ten blinked. Ze hadn’t expected it to be that easy. It was almost disappointing. Well, no it was definitely disappointing, but ze couldn’t exactly complain about Cody following hir directions for once, even if it would have been nice if he’d…

The door opened again just moments later and Cody came back in, closing the door after himself. He was wearing his full hovercycle gear, including his helmet and gloves. “That was fast,” Ten remarked. “You must have run.”

“Shut up,” Cody said tersely. He made his way over to the control panel, acid splashing fruitlessly against his protective equipment. “Just…what do I need to do here?”

Well…for the sake of covering hir tracks, it would be best to decouple the veering nodes one at a time, doubling back with a scrubber over each one so there was no trace of gravitational anomaly, but that would take more talking than Ten was feeling up to right now. Ze’d have to take hir chances with Jason Kim. “See the thingy stuck to the big blinking cable? Unhook it.” Cody did so, and a second later everything that had been floating, which was only what Ten had intended to be able to float with the exception of the acid, crashed to the ground. The centrifuge was fortunately tethered to the ceiling, so the biofilms didn’t spill everywhere, but there was more than enough mess thanks to the leaky joint.

Cody took his helmet off and came over to the bed, where Ten was still bouncing a bit from the firmness of hir fall. “Are you okay?” he demanded, eyes wide and hands reaching. He didn’t touch though, which was thoughtful since his gloves were smeared with acid and Ten didn’t need any more of that on hir body, thanks so much.

“I’m…yes, of course, why wouldn’t I be okay?” Ten asked, but ze knew hir rebuke wasn’t up to snuff when Cody kept hovering. “I just need to get cleaned up. A shower will take care of the acid, it’s not that strong, and then I’ll get back out here and handle the rest of the bedroom.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Cody said. “You go bathe.”

“Be careful,” Ten warned him, “the pH isn’t that extreme but it will still give you trouble if you—”

“Go get in the damn shower, Ten!”

“Fine,” Ten huffed, getting off the bed and cradling hir hand close to hir chest with as much dignity as ze could muster, which wasn’t as much as ze would have liked. Stupid hand, stupid…head, stupid acid and stupid, stupid mistakes, it was the sort of thing Ten hadn’t had to deal with for years, ze was hardly…it was really…

“Ten.” Cody stepped close and urged Ten toward the tiny bathroom. “Go on. It’s okay, I’ll be right here if you need me.”

 I don’t need you, Ten wanted to say, but the lie—the blatant, blatant lie—stuck in hir throat and ze ended up not saying anything, just getting into the shower. Ze stripped down and left hir clothes on the floor as ze scrubbed hir skin, the soap automatically correcting hir skin's acidity. The burning went away almost instantly and the worst spot, on the back of hir hand, was really the only one that needed attention once ze was rinsed off. Regardless, Ten stayed in the shower longer than ze strictly needed to, trying to follow the vision that had struck hir so vividly earlier.

Ten didn’t remember much about hir parents: they were scientists, they were explorers, and they had left hir behind without a word when they left Solaydor. Ten stared at hir hands for a long time, trying to get the crispness of that vision back, the way hir hands had curled into unwilling fists, the heat and change in color—mottled white and red, so strange, and the way the flesh had just melted away on top, leaving such a grisly view behind. Screaming…high pitched but not hir own, a woman’s…and the yelling…maybe it had been hir parents? Some kind of accident, some way Ten had been injured?

Or maybe it wasn’t a memory at all, just another twist of Ten’s admittedly twisty brain.

“Ten?” The bathroom door opened and Cody stepped inside. He was in casual clothes now, and his arms were bare. “I cleaned your room up, I’m pretty sure I got all of the acid. There wasn’t actually that much, and the walls will actually tell you where something corrosive is going on, so…yeah. Um, are you clean yet? Do you need the medbay?”

“You need to sleep with me,” Ten blurted, then soldiered on once ze realized it would do hir no good to waste time being mortified. “I don’t mean we need to have sex, except we really, really do and I’m going to combust if we don’t actually do that soon,” damn Grennson and his over-watchful parents anyway, “ but I need you to sleep in the same room with me. I can’t concentrate the way I should without you, and honestly what happened out there was almost as much your responsibility as it was mine, because how am I supposed to remember the little things when I’m so tired I can barely see, and I know I’d sleep a lot better if I could have you…here. With me.” Ze waited silently, shifting from foot to foot on the wet floor of the shower and wanting to let hir eyes wander, but not quite able to look away from Cody’s stupid brown eyes and his crazy yellow curls and the way a small, slow smile spread across his face.

“You could just have said that you missed me,” Cody said, his smile becoming a grin. “You didn’t have to make your room into a death trap to get the point across.”

“It was hardly a death trap, I would have taken care of everything in good time, I was just…I just…you know what, nevermind, stay in your own room, it’s not like I need you to function, I can handle things just fine—”

“I get nightmares without you,” Cody said quietly. “Mostly about the bike blowing up, but some of them are of Pam, only instead of choking me to death she’s choking you. Sometimes Grennson.”

“Oh.” Well, that wasn’t exactly good, but there was something darkly gratifying about being a balm against a person’s demons. “So, it’s…mutual?”

“It’s always been mutual.” They stared at each other for a moment before Cody said, “I can leave most of my stuff in the other room, but I’ll move some clothes into your storage, if you’ve left any space at all.”

“Far right corner, there’s at least five inches of free shelf,” Ten said automatically. These rooms were even smaller than the one they'd shared at the Academy, but Ten wasn't going to let that stop hir now. Space was an artificial construct of quantum physics anyway. “I was going to use it for my mini-titration kit, but I guess that can wait to be unpacked until we get to Perelan.”

“How generous,” Cody said dryly, but he was still smiling when he left, and once Ten got out of the shower and started to towel off, ze was a little surprised to see a matching smile still visible on hir own face. Huh. Ridiculous, but hard to keep from happening when ze didn’t even realize it was happening.

“Ten.” The room’s comm suddenly spoke with Jason’s voice. “When you’re done in the shower, meet me in the bridge so we can talk about ship safety protocols while flying through space.”

Ten rolled hir eyes. “Well, shit.”

“My thoughts exactly, Ten. Get out here.”

“I’m coming!” And ze was…once ze made sure Cody found those five inches. Ze wanted him to feel welcome, after all.

RMFW and an upcoming Academy vignette

Hi guys!

Soooo...a few things to discuss. One, I went to the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer's conference over the weekend, which was pretty awesome. I did a round table critique of the first ten pages of my epic fantasy, which was brutally helpful, helmed by J. Ellen Smith who runs the publishing house Champagne Books. Well, at least she asked to see it once I've made changes. Positive sign!

I met some amazing authors, sat in for classes taught by Carol Berg (who writes her own incredible epic fantasy, look her up if you're at all interested, she's fantastic) and Susan Spann (ninja mysteries set in the 16th century, cool as hell) among others. I also got together with some other members of the Out In Colorado writing group who decided that, fun as these classes are, it would be nice to have a workshop on writing queer characters for authors, because there was no talk at all of LGBTQA people/issues. A lot of the workshops were run by romance authors who by in large had very binary mindsets, ie cis males and cis females. So we've decided to put together our own class and try to get it approved for next year's conference, because this is a contemporary issue and one authors need to be informed on. So, there's that.

Soothsayer is coming along pretty well, but I got a request from one of my favorite people to write a Cody/Ten update, and I think it's about time for one of those. I'll try to get it out by tomorrow. Not sure exactly what it's going to be about, but I will come up with something! Because you guys deserve the best, right? Right.

I did a class on reaching out to new readers and social media and etc. etc. etc., and one of their recommendations was to be free to give without expectation of return. It's a very good karma kind of thing, and I'm feeling like I've got that down. :)

Happy Wednesday!

The Academy: Second Prologue: Introductions

Notes: I decided to write out another prologue for Cody's story, since we're getting close to starting it.  This one provides an introduction to his quad, the three other people he'll be rooming with at the Academy.  I like the variety, and I have all sorts of crazy ideas for the stuff that's going to happen to them.  I'll post the Love Letters epilogue on Tuesday, and then...off we go into the deep space yonder.

PS--if you've read Pandora, if you've read Changing Worlds, you'll recognize some of these characters.  I love having a big universe to play in:)

Title: The Academy: Second Prologue: Introductions


***

                “Absolutely not.”

                “This isn’t up for discussion, Tiennan.”

“You can’t make me go.”

                “As your legal guardian, I think you’ll find that I can,” Symone St. Clair informed her ward as she stuffed more of ze’s things into a packing compartment.  “Besides, you can’t tell me you didn’t know this was going to happen.”

                “When?  When did you tell me you were going to ship me off to the hideous, restrictive, politico-military institution that is the Federation Academy?” Tiennan demanded, crossing hir arms over hir skinny chest.  “I think I’d have remembered something so draconian.”

“Oh, really?” Symone said with raised eyebrows.  “Because I’ve noticed over the years that your memory is entirely selective.  Let’s recap, then.  Last year, I told you that if you couldn’t make it through your final year of preparatory school without either blowing something up or causing a teacher to take out an order of restraint, you’d be blacklisted at all of Solaydor’s institutions of higher education.  You managed both of those things in the first semester, and you have subsequently been barred from continuing your education on this planet.”

“I can do an independent study,” Tiennan argued.  “I’ll learn more on my own anyway, you just need to fix my lab and I’ll be—”

“Ah, yes!  On to the second point, which actually is your lab.  You wanted a laboratory.  You have a trust fund and the right to use it for your education, so I allowed you a lab with that purpose in mind.  You’ve so far been responsible for two—not one, two—instances of biological contamination bad enough that our entire block has had to be quarantined, not to mention the time you blew it up.  Your lab is dangerous, not just to you but to everyone in a kilometer radius, and I don’t have the expertise to know if what you’re doing is dangerous or not, so clearly, you need to be more closely monitored by someone who knows what they’re doing.”  Symone stuffed another stack of tunics into the compartment and watched the machine methodically fold and package them until they were a tenth of their original size.  

“I told you, I installed new panels in the ceiling and walls that will easily give way in the case of an explosion, minimizing the danger from shrapnel and percussive force.”

“Not to you,” Symone pointed out.  “I swear to the stars, if I have to take you to the regen tanks to have yet another hand made for you, the authorities will put me in jail on suspicion of child abuse.”

“I’ll be more careful, I promise!”

“You’ve told me that fifty-seven times since you came to live with me, Tiennan,” Symone said tiredly, turning to look at hir.  “And fifty-seven times, you’ve left me worried and disappointed and afraid.”

Tiennan shifted on hir feet, looking away.  Bright blue hair shimmered as it fell in front of hir face, obscuring Symone’s view.  “I’m sorry.”

“Maybe you are.  But that’s not good enough.  If you want to continue your education, you’re going to do it someplace where you can be properly supervised.  You can’t stay on Solaydor, and let’s be honest, most universities won’t be able to handle your areas of interest.  The Academy is the best of the lot, and I told you, I told you, that you’d be going there if you weren’t responsible enough to comport yourself with more maturity.  You disregarded me, and so that’s it.  You leave tomorrow.”

“I’m too young to be in the Academy, they don’t accept cadets until the age of seventeen!” Tiennan protested.

“They’re making an exception for you.  Besides, you’ll be seventeen in three standard months, then you’ll be totally legal.”

“I don’t want to leave,” Tiennan said, and this time ze sounded honest.  Symone looked over and saw hir staring back, too-large grey eyes anxious in hir thin, angular face.  “They’re binaries, they won’t understand.”

“They will,” Symone said, coming over and wrapping her arm around Tiennan’s shoulders.  “You know that the Federation doesn’t allow discrimination based on gender.”

“That assumes that they’re accepting of people with established genders,” Tiennan grumbled, but ze let hirself be drawn in a bit closer.  “I don’t want to be tied down like that, I can’t.”

“And you won’t have to be.  I promise.”  Symone squeezed hir gently.  “You’re going to be in a predominantly male dorm, but even there I’m sure you’ll find plenty of variety.  In fact, you’re going to be in a quad with the son of one of my oldest friends.  When I told him about you, he pulled some strings to get the two of you into the same quad, so at least you’ll know one person there.”

“I don’t know him, you know him,” Tiennan said sourly.  “What’s his name?”

“The boy’s name is Cody Helms, and his fathers are Jonah and Garrett.  Garrett is the one I know, he spent some time here a few decades ago.  He’s from an old political family like me, but he decided to become a scientist instead of a socialite.  Although he’s quite good at both.”

“What if his son doesn’t like me?” Tiennan asked, trying to act as though he didn’t care about the answer, but his posture was still unsure.  “What if his son is just another brainless Academy jock, or what if he’s an idiot who hates chemistry, or what if—”

“Stop.  Don’t give yourself a panic attack,” Symone said.  “Cody is a lovely boy, not much older than you, actually.  He’s very smart, otherwise he wouldn’t have made it into the Academy, and I think as long as you give him the chance to get to know you before you start insulting his intelligence, you two might become friends.  Can you promise to give it a try?  Please?”

Tiennan rolled his eyes.  “Fine.  But he’d better not give me any problems, otherwise I’ll turn his skin purple.”

Symone sighed.  “I thought you got rid of that compound.  I specifically remember telling you to get rid of it after you turned the entirety of last holiday’s dinner party purple just because you want to test out your diffusers, do you recall?”

Tiennan grinned.  “Oh, right.  That was fun.”

Symone turned resolutely back to the packing, and hoped that the Academy knew what it was letting itself in for.

 

***

 

Darrel couldn’t eat.  It was his going-away party, he was surrounded by his family and the smell of his nana’s fresh-baked bread made his stomach rumble, but his throat seemed sealed shut.  It was all he could do to choke down a few sips of water as he listened to them go on and on about the Academy.  More specifically, about his father and the Academy.

“You’re signed up for the Athenian Society, aren’t you Darry?” his nana asked. “Your daddy was the president of the Athenian Society his senior year, it was a good place to meet people, make connections.”

“Never got why everything in the damn Academy had to be named after the Greeks,” his papa grunted as he sliced into the roast.  “There are innumerable old war gods to name their societies after, and I think it’s pretty suspect that the only ones they used come from just one ancient civilization.  What about the Babylonians?  What about the Yoruba?  Or the Aztecs?  I think the Mixcoatl Society sounds much more diverse.”

“The Academy’s situated on a planet called Olympus, what can you expect?” Aunt Shawna asked rhetorically.  “Pass the hash, Mama.”

“And the paraball team!  You’ve got to try out for that, Darry,” Nana continued as she passed the heavy serving dish along.  “Your daddy was so good at that, his team won the interplanetary championship three years in a row.  He—”

“You’ve always enjoyed paraball, right habibi?” his mother interjected.  “You played all through high school.”

“Yeah, mom.  I like it.”  Not as much as he liked some other sports, but paraball, a reimagined form of lacrosse played in a low-gravity, curving parabolic field, was the one that Darrel had always known he didn’t have a choice about.  Not since his father had played it.  If Captain Darrel Montgomery Parrish III had done it, before his heroic death in the Federation’s last great skirmish on the Fringe, then his namesake and only child had to do the same.  His whole family took comfort in the fact that Darrel was, physically, almost the perfect likeness of his father: coffee-colored skin, green eyes, tall, broad and athletic.  It didn’t matter that he’d rather study linguistics than tactics; his course had been charted from the moment his father’s ship exploded, with him and a skeleton crew still aboard providing cover for the fleeing escape pods.  Vengeance had come for the people who’d killed him, but the only way his family could get satisfaction was if Darrel made them proud.  So he would.

He had to.

“Why aren’t you eating?” his nana asked, finally getting a look at his plate.  “You’re not going to find hash like mine in the cafeterias at the Academy, Darry.  It was one of the things your father missed the most when he was gone.  I sent him care packages every month, just so he could have a taste of home.  Don’t worry, I’ll do the same for you.”  She smiled proudly at him.  “Skies above, you’re just…you’re so like him, Darry.  So like my baby.  Sometimes I can’t believe…”  Her voice trailed off and she sniffed.  Papa put his arm around her, the aunts leaned in close to commiserate, and Darrel felt like he could barely breathe.

“Excuse me,” he managed, standing up and leaving the dining room.  He heard Aunt Shawna exclaim, then his mother’s voice, but Darrel didn’t want to hear it.  He walked back to his room as fast as he could, got inside and locked the door behind him.

His room was barren.  Everything had already been packed up in preparation for his move; even the posters were down now, since Nana and Papa wanted to remodel the house once he was gone.  Darrel had never lived anywhere else, not anywhere he could remember, at least.  He and his mother had lived on the military base on Station Seventeen when he was an infant, since it was a good mid-point close to the Fringe.  After his father’s ship went down, they’d moved in with his father’s parents.

There was still a mirror up in the room, an old-fashioned one that protruded from the wall instead of a smart-material that made up part of the wall itself.  Darrel pushed away from the door and walked over to it, looking at his reflection.  Same square jaw, same short black hair, same pale eyes as his famous father, immortalized as a savior of the Federation military.  It hadn’t been hard to get into the Academy; the whole world seemed to expect Darrel to go there, not just his family, because he was a legacy, the only child of a legend.

Darrel stared at himself and felt his hands clench.  He hated, hated his own face.  Maybe if he hadn’t looked so much like his father, that man he couldn’t even remember, who he didn’t even have a picture of himself with because the captain was deployed almost the whole time they’d been alive at the same time, maybe then he would’ve stood a better chance of living his own life.  As it was, though, he was fucked.  There was nothing for it.  He’d have to at least give the military a try as a career; the first thirty or forty years, maybe.  That was a respectable amount of time for a first career, and by then his father’s memory would have faded further in his family’s mind.  Maybe after that, he could break free.

Someone tried his door.  “Habibi?”  It was his mother.  Sent along by his nana to see what was wrong with him, why he wasn’t sitting at the table choking down all his father’s favorite dishes and listening to them plan out his entire youth.  “Darrel, are you all right?”

Darrel took a deep breath and blew it out.  He was fine.  Soon he’d be at the Academy, which at least meant that he wouldn’t be here.  He was leaving tomorrow; he could handle one more evening.  He went over to the door and unlocked it, making sure his face was smooth.  “I’m fine, mom.  I just needed a minute to myself.”

“Oh,” his mother said softly, her gaze penetrating.  Darrel had always wondered if, maybe, she knew a lot more than she was letting on about how he felt, and just never talked about it.  “Okay.  “Come on, I’m about to bring out the spiced cream puffs.”

Those were Darrel’s favorite.  As far as he knew, his father had never even eaten them.  He managed to smile for her.  “Great.”

 

***

 

Two slender wooden mokdo clacked together loudly in the silence of the ship’s workout room.  The space was tight but the practitioners were acutely aware of each other’s movements, stepping with confidence as they circled each other.  They wore protective faceplates and gloves, but the rest of their bodies were clothed by simple white dobaks: wide-legged pants and thick, long-sleeved tops held closed with a black cloth belt.  One of the practitioners, a dark-haired man a few inches taller than his opponent, held his sword in the ready position in front of his body, arms bent, the tip pointing straight at the other fighter.  On his next step, he lunged forward, sword snapping up and angling for a cut across the ribs.

The second fighter swayed to the side, not enough to avoid the blow entirely but enough to give him room to parry and counter with a horizontal strike.  It was parried right back, and they pressed against each other for a long moment, fighting for supremacy, before the second fighter thrust the other man away and leapt straight up, bringing his sword straight down at his opponent’s head.

The dark-haired man half-turned, folding himself into the space directly beneath his opponent, then let go of his sword with one hand to grab ahold of the foot that was falling at his head and jerk it sideways.  His movement compromised, the other fighter crashed to the mat on his front, managing to roll onto his back and lift his sword but froze as soon as he felt the press of wood against his own throat.

The pressure vanished after a second and the other man took his faceplate off.  “That was very good,” he said with a smile.

Grennson huffed and took off his own faceplate.  “I thought this was a sword fight, not a brawl,” he said, his voice a husky growl instead of its normal light purr.

“It was a fight that included swords.  And was that a complaint?  Because you know that complainers give me pushups.”

The slender brown quills that lined Grennson’s head and spine flattened with apology and embarrassment.  “I didn’t mean to complain, Jason,” he told his adoptive father, letting the human pull him to his feet.  Grennson was a Perel, both stronger and faster than any unmodified human, but he’d been studying martial arts under his human parent since he was just a cub.  He knew better than to underestimate the man, he just wanted to beat him at least once before his parents dropped him off at the Federation Academy.  But Jason wasn’t the kind of person to just let someone win if they hadn’t honestly earned it, and so Grennson let go of his wounded pride and smiled back.  “Perhaps after a year of studying apart, I will be able to show you some new tricks when we meet again.”

“I’ve no doubt,” Jason agreed quietly.  Too quietly, even for him.  Grennson tuned into his father’s emotions; all Perel were empaths, and Grennson was stronger than most males.  He could feel Jason’s pride in him, the deep affection that lived steady in his center, and more than a hint of sadness as well.

“Why are you sad?” Grennson asked, patting his father’s shoulders.  The touch increased their connection and now he felt the worry, too.  It was strange, because Jason had been his solid supporter ever since he broached the idea of going to the Academy.

Perels had been attending human universities for the past eight years, thanks to Jason and his husband Ferran’s efforts.  Ferran was the son of the most powerful matriarch on Perelan, and he’d broken fresh ground for their entire species by falling in love with and marrying a human, and then bringing that human home to learn how to be Perel.  It had been a daunting and dangerous task, but Jason was an exceptional person, and not only survived but became genuinely accepted by the Perels.

Since then the couple had worked as diplomats, increasing Perelan’s contact with the outside universe, particularly the parts controlled by the human Federation, which Jason used to serve as a ship’s captain.  They struck deals that allowed for interested and infertile male Perels, the only ones that were allowed off the planet, to study at approved human universities in exchange for human graduate students to come and live on Perelan.  Five years ago, they had been allowed by Ferran’s mother, Matriarch Grenn, to adopt Grennson, who lived as a ward in her home ever since his birth family was killed.  All wards in the House of Grenn shared the same name, but now his was completely unique: Grennson Kim Howards of the House of Grenn.

Grennson was the first Perel to ask to go to the Academy, the Federation’s military training ground.  He wasn’t interested in joining the military, but he did want to know more about how it worked, and figured it would be a novel place to discover new things about humanity.  Ferran had been a bit uncertain at first, but Jason talked him around and now they were only a day away from Olympus, the planet where the academy was located.

“I’m sad because I’ll miss you, that’s all,” Jason said finally.

Well, Grennson would miss his parents too, but there was more to it than that.  “No, what else?” he persisted.

“Nosy cub,” Jason sighed.  “It’s just that the thought of you being on your own for the first time makes me a bit nervous.  It’s not because I don’t think you’ll do well, because I know you will.  I just…” He shrugged.  “I worry, regardless.  It’s a parent’s prerogative, I think.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” Grennson said, but the worry he felt inside his father didn’t dissipate.  “I…I speak the best common language of any Perel aside from Ferran and Mistress Jlinn, I can physically defend myself against everyone except you, I have passed all of the necessary exams, and you yourself finalized the arrangements for my education with the admiral in command of the Academy.  I will be well.  And when you return to visit me I will have exciting stories to tell you, and when I eventually return to Perel our people will learn much from my experiences.”

“I know,” Jason agreed.  “You don’t have to reassure me, son.  I’m not having a rational reaction to your leaving, but I acknowledge that.  I’ll be fine, too.  Don’t worry.”  He smiled and squeezed Grenn’s hand on his shoulder, then asked the time.

“Twenty-one thirty, standard.  Twenty-nine eighteen, Perelan,”  the computer recited dutifully.

“It’s getting late.  Ferran’s probably given up on having dinner with us by now.  Let’s go surprise him.”  Jason set his sword and gloves on the mat next to his faceplate.

“Can we have kimchi?” Grennson asked, putting his things next to his father’s and standing close enough for their shoulders to touch.

“I think we can do that,” Jason agreed.

 

***

 

They were going to crash.  They were going too fast not to crash, and Wyl might survive but Cody knew that he would be tossed around the rocky landscape like a broken doll and there wouldn’t be any coming back for him.  And right now, he couldn’t even bring himself to care.

“Mind the mass reader!” Wyl said through their linked radios as they tore across the desert on Wyl’s latest hoverbike prototype.  “It’s dusty out here and some of this stuff is gonna come at you too fast to see with your eyes at these speeds.”

Cody glanced at the mass reader, then over at the speedometer.  Just edging up on eight hundred kilometers an hour.  It was the fastest Cody had ever gone this close to the ground, and never with him controlling the bike before, or being the one driving it.  But this bike was…something exquisite.  The body was incredibly sleek and beautiful, painted in fading shades of purple into blue into white.  The forward-facing energy shield deflected dangerous particles from the riders and made them way more aerodynamic.  It was amazingly fast, with special turbo boosters to propel the bike up to eye-searing speeds for fifteen second bursts.  Thanks to a Wyl-designed vertical propulsion system, Cody could kick the bike into flips as well, and the gyroscopes would stabilize it by the time it got close to the ground again. 

Good thing he and Wyl were strapped in.

“We’re coming up on the canyon,” Wyl told him.  “Head into the straightaway, then punch the special turbo.”

“I already used up the turbo fuel modules.”

“No, Cody,” Wyl said, and Cody could hear the grin in his voice.  “The special turbo.  Little green button to the right of the shifter.  You have to tap it fast twice, otherwise the failsafe won’t let it go off.”

“What happens then?”

“Then, you keep us from ending up a smear on the side of the canyon.”

Wow, that sounded…perilous, but Cody just felt more excited.  He could see the canyon coming up, but used the mass reader to make sure he hit the ravine dead center.  Shades of red and orange and brown streaked by on either side, and once Cody felt he had a handle on what was up ahead, he triggered the special turbo.

The hoverbike leapt forward, sending them screaming down the canyon at over a thousand kilometers an hour.  The chassis trembled between Cody’s thighs, metal humming with the friction of the air.  It was all Cody could do to keep it pointed in the right direction, straight ahead, straight toward the—shit, toward the end of the canyon.

“Punch the ground!” Wyl yelled, and Cody fired the downward propulsions units just as the mass reader started to blare a warning.  The bike catapulted into the sky, soaring upward until all that surrounded them was blue, Cody too dazed by beauty and adrenaline to even notice the ground.  The bike spun in an arc, pulling gees that should have left Cody gasping and nauseous, but instead he welcomed the feeling of completely losing control of himself. 

Then the bike started to fall, and the gyroscopes kicked in to stabilize them.  Cody fired the propulsors again to slow their descent, and by the time they got back to within a meter of the ground they were going a now-pleasant three hundred kilometers an hour.  Cody’s hands were trembling, and he brought the bike to a stop in the shadow of a spire of rock.

Wyl undid his harness, hopped off the back and came around to look at Cody.  “You good?” he asked, concern showing in his eyes.

“I’m…yeah.”  Cody grinned wide.  “Fuck yes!  I am fucking amazing, look what we did, can you fucking believe that?”  Cody disconnected himself and stepped to the ground, wilting a little as his legs turned to jelly from prolonged tension, but Wyl helped hold him up.  Cody beamed at him.  “That!  That was perfect!  Oh, fuck, that was the best thing ever!”

“Glad you liked it,” Wyl said.  “Since you’re taking the bike with you.”

“What?”  Cody felt like his should be stopping; surely he wasn’t hearing Wyl right.  “You don’t…how can I, this is too much, you can’t give me this.”

“I’m not.  Not exactly, I mean, not just me,” Wyl explained, tucking his helmet under his arm.  “It’s from me and Robbie and your grandparents and your dads.  Robbie told me the Academy has a racing team if you’re interested, and you’re gonna be working on your small craft piloting and mechanics anyway, so we decided this would be the perfect thing for you.  It’s not all street legal, obviously, and regulations very from planet to planet, but as long as you don’t use the special turbo I think you should be fine.”

“But the special turbo is the best part,” Cody said numbly.  Wyl laughed.

“Well yeah, I know that and you know that, but I think if anyone else knew we’d get into some serious trouble, so keep it to yourself, okay?  No special turbo unless you’re being chased by human traffickers or something.”

“Right,” Cody said.  “Because they so abound in the Central System.”

“They abound everywhere, they’re just more cagey in the Central System,” Wyl said seriously.  “So.  Is this cool?”

“My dads are really good with this?” Cody demanded.  “Because I’m not sure I believe you, you know how they can be.”

“It took some convincing, and maybe a romantic evening alone for the two of them so Gare could get his persuasion on, but yeah, they’re good with it.”

“Oh my god.”  Cody threw his arms around Wyl’s neck and squeezed.  They were about the same size, though Wyl was stronger, and he wrapped his own arms around Cody’s back and held him tight.  “You guys are the best.  Really, I don’t…fuck, this sucks, I want to thank you and I’m…”

“I get it.  You’re welcome.”  Wyl let go of Cody and stepped back.  “Now, I think we’re about,” he checked the display on the bike, “one hundred or so kilometers from the capitol.  How quickly do you think we can get there?”

“Hmm.”  Cody looked around.  “Well, that depends.  Is this area rife with human traffickers?”

“Good question,” Wyl said approvingly.  “And the answer is probably yes.  Just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there, being sneaky.  There could be dozens creeping up on our position right now.”

“Then I guess we better use the special turbo to get back to safety,” Cody said.

“I like the way you think, kid.”

 

***

 

“With all due respect, sir, are you out of your mind?”

Admiral Sigurd Liang stared up at his chief of staff, not at all surprised at the accusation of insanity.  Poor Jessup was having a hard time adjusting to a calmer life after serving in the marines for sixty-two years, and after being a Master Sergeant who was accustomed to controlling his officers as much as he did his underlings, dealing with Sigurd stressed him out.  Admiral Liang was many things: charming, erudite, handsome and brilliant, but he was also fiercely independent.  He was half convinced his superiors had stuck him in charge of the Academy just to get him out of active command, where he’d kept “adjusting” their plans.  “Ah, Jessup.  What have I done this time?”

Jessup paused, perhaps realizing just how close to the edge of insubordinate he was being.  He cleared his throat.  “Excuse me, sir, I don’t mean to be rude, but…have you looked over the incoming freshmen quads?”

“All of them,” Sigurd replied.  Four hundred and fifty-eight incoming plebes, from all over the universe.  Including, for the first time, a Perel.  It was a fascinating group, and Sigurd had looked over each and every one of their files.  “We’re getting a marvelous variety this year, I expect we’ll leave the other academies in the dust.”  Because there were other branches of the Academy; one school was insufficient to provide officers for the entire Federation navy.  But the academy at Olympus was far and away regarded as the best.

“And you approved all of the living arrangements?”

“It would be a dereliction of my duty to have passed something like that by,” Sigurd said, his urbane tones sharpening a bit.  “What exactly are you getting at, Chief?”

“Sir, I think you should take a closer look at this quad.”  Jessup swept his tablet across Sigurd’s desk and a new page sprang up.  Sigurd examined it for a moment, then smiled.

“Ah, yes.  What about it, Chief?”

“Sir!  A Solaydorian with a penchant for explosives, a legacy jock from Krall, an alien—from a species known for their insatiable sexual appetites—and a bumpkin natural from the Fringe?  They’re going to kill each other before the first term is out, sir.”

Sigurd sighed.  This was why Jessup never rose higher than Master Sergeant.  He was brilliant at managing the things he could see, but had no gift for inductive planning.  “Interesting.  Did you bother to read the rest of their files, Chief?”

“Somewhat,” Jessup said uncomfortably.

“Somewhat, well.  Perhaps you should look deeper, because when I look at this group, I see an intellectual savant looking for a challenge, a clever linguist with a chip on his shoulder who needs to be encouraged toward his strengths, an alien who was raised by the first human ever granted full rights on Perelan, and a natural with widespread abilities who could become a brilliant undercover operative, and who also happens to be the grandson of a retired general in the marines.  I see a group of young people who, if given the right nudges, will become allies for each other, and will shore up each other’s weaknesses.  I see a possibility, Chief, that goes beyond their four years allocated to us.  Do you follow me?”

“I understand what you’re saying, sir, but…I just don’t quite see it,” Jessup confessed.  “They seem too different.”

“If they’re not still together by the end of the first term, and solid as a rock by the end of the first year, I’ll give you two weeks extra vacation,” Sigurd said.  “If they work out, you’ll teach the remedial field maneuvers class over the third term.  Agreed?”

Jessup grinned.  “Agreed, sir.  Two weeks extra spent basking in the oceans of Griffin?  It gives me something to look forward to.”  He turned to go, then glanced back.  “Pardon me, sir, but who is the natural’s grandfather?”

“Miles Caractacus,” Sigurd said, and took no small pleasure in watching his chief of staff’s eyes widen.  “And you think his grandson isn’t tough enough to handle the rest of his quad?  Chief, I’m going to enjoy watching you guide plebes over muddy obstacle courses this third term.”

Jessup swallowed but held his head high.  “We’ll see, sir,” he said, then left the office.

“Indeed we will,” Sigurd murmured, looking at the four photos on his desk.  He smiled.  “Indeed we will.”